On 23 October 2007, the Portuguese Competition Authority (the “AdC”) adopted a merger control decision according to Law 18/2003 of 11 June (the Portuguese Competition Act), providing clearance to the envisaged acquisition of sole control over the company NSL - Nicolau Sousa Lima, SGPS, S.A. (the “NSL Group”) by the Bensaude Group.
The above merger envisaged the concentration of two conglomerate companies, primarily active in the Azores archipelago - a special Portuguese administrative territory, identified as the Autonomous Region of the Azores (the “ARA”).
The (vast) range of activities of the acquiring company, the Bensaude Group, includes the importation, storage and marketing of fuels, and also, among others, the running of activities pertaining to the fuel storage and marketing,